To my knowledge, it hasn't rained recently. I see there's a chance of it later on in the week. While it did not rain today, the trails were muddy. Here in the midwest, we are in the part of the year where the ground is constantly hardening and thawing -- making for a muddy, slippery mess on well-traversed trails.
I like the muddy trails despite slipping two times and nearly falling flat on my bottom. The soft ground captures fellow travelers in this season. Deer tracks, Raccoon prints, and paw prints from Canines remind me that we have companions we may not often think of. I'm mindful of Sparrows and Juncos because of the feeders outside my window. Oh, and the Geese! Goodness, I love how they interrupt my walks and invite me to look up to the heavens. I find comfort knowing my footprints join the critters of the woods and that in the near distant future, I'll see one of Chloe's and rejoice for the gift of her life.
I continue to reflect on Isaiah's text from Sunday's service. Here's The Message paraphrase for Isaiah 11:
A Living Knowledge of God
6-9 The wolf will romp with the lamb,
the leopard sleep with the kid.
Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,
and a little child will tend them.
Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,
their calves and cubs grow up together,
and the lion eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,
the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
on my holy mountain.
The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,
a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.
The vision the Living God gives the prophet is a peaceful community of all creatures. Sure, each animal might represent a nation during Isaiah's writing. But it could also be the prophet conjuring up an earlier time in which animals lived in peace to imagine the king's reign of peace.
When you're out and about this week -- look for signs of life. What critters share your space with you? Your neighborhood? Your favorite park. Then, pray for their peace and yours. May we do all we can to disrupt practices and policies that stand in the way of living in harmony with God's creative energy of love!
It didn't rain. But I'm glad for the moisture that makes the soil soft!
Here's one of my favorite quotes about rain by none other than Thomas Merton:
Let me say this before rain becomes a utility that they can plan and distribute for money. By "they" I mean the people who cannot understand that rain is a festival, who do not appreciate its gratuity, who think that what has no price has no value, that what cannot be sold is not real, so that the only way to make something actual is to place it on the market. The time will come when they will sell you even your rain. At the moment it is still free, and I am in it. I celebrate its gratuity and its meaninglessness.
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